


Hogwarts Unity

by FenrirDraca



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Dumbledore Bashing, Gen, Harry is Salazar, M/M, Reincarnation of Founders, Slight Child Abuse at the beginning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-26
Updated: 2014-06-17
Packaged: 2018-01-06 04:52:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 17,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1102642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FenrirDraca/pseuds/FenrirDraca
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Salazar Slytherin is reincarnated as Harry Potter, and he decides that, with the help of the other founders and certain events that, coincidentally, happen during the year, that he is going to correct the corruption of the school and clear his name. Only question, will he succeed? Being Rewritten</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Awakening

**Author's Note:**

> I posted this on FFN several months ago, so you can read it there if you want, and I wrote this a year ago. I finally got around to posting this on here, so here it is:

Harry laid on his bed, listening to the sounds of scraping forks on plates downstairs. His stomach rumbled from the lack of food, tired of being empty for so long. It had been two days since he had eaten anything, since the latest beating that had rendered him unconscious. Since then, he had been locked in his room, with absolutely nothing to do but listen as the rest of his ‘family’ went about their normal lives.

He didn’t even have Hedwig to talk to as Uncle Vernon had killed her not long after he had come home from fifth year, claiming that she had been making too much of a racket. That had been hard to deal with, having his owl killed not long after his godfather, Sirius Black, had been murdered. It had been harder still, since all of his friends realized what exactly they were risking by being friends with him.

Only Luna stayed by his side.

She was the only one that seemed to have realized all along that there was danger in being his friend, and going along with his plans. The only one that accepted that it was a grave mistake to believe the vision and try and save his godfather. Even Ron and Hermione didn’t seem to realize this, and they had been with him throughout all this time, didn’t want him.

As soon as he had stepped into the house, his school stuff, including Hedwig, were taken from him and burned in the backyard and he was locked into his bedroom. He was just grateful that he had the presence of mind to keep his wand and invisibility cloak, knowing that his other stuff would at least have been locked up. Though it still made him sad and angry that they had burned his stuff. They had kept him in his room, only letting him out twice a day to use the restroom and shower, Petunia coming up to give a tray of meager rations once a day.

Tomorrow was his sixteenth birthday.

Just as he was lolling off to sleep, he heard the locks being undone and the door being flung open. Harry opened his eyes to look up at his uncle, who was stalking angrily into the room, after slamming the door shut. He briefly wondered what he had done to attract his uncle’s ire, but banished the thought, as he knew he didn’t have to do anything for his uncle to get mad at him.

But, upon closer look, the rage seemed to be … different. And his eyes were glassy.

_He’s drunk!_

Harry carefully sat up, keeping his eyes on his enraged uncle. When Vernon reached the bed, Harry had to dodge a punch to his face, which only served to make Vernon even angrier. He wasn’t so lucky to evade the next one, which ultimately led to him being beaten again.

“Can’t even protect yourself, freak? It’s no wonder your stupid godfather had to die because of you.”

It was not a new insult for the summer, but it still made Harry angry. But just as he went to retaliate, his uncle sucker punched him. As he was regaining his breath, Vernon took out a knife that Harry hadn’t noticed before. It was just a regular steak knife, but the fact that his uncle had brought it with him with the intent of using it to hurt him, scared him.

Vernon had never used anything but his fists, feet, and belt to hurt him before. But now, a burning cold blade was slicing into his skin, as if was hardly there. He screamed and screamed, but no one came to help him. No one cared. They never did.

No one cared about an orphan.

Finally, after his uncle was apparently done slicing up his flesh, Vernon left the room with a bloody knife, leaving his nephew in bloody strips a few minutes to midnight.

Tears streamed down Harry’s face as he laid on his bed, trying to work up the strength of move. Sure, it probably wasn’t the worst that his uncle wanted to do to him, but it was the worst so far. It also just served to really pound into his head that no one liked him, and that he deserved it, no matter if he had done nothing to gain anyone’s ire.

Damn muggles.

Wait, where had that come from? He had never really hated muggles before, though he never really liked them. It wasn’t as if he had anything against muggleborns, but the people they came from …

Where were these thoughts coming from? He had never really dwelled on muggles before, having too much going on in the wizarding world.

But now, he hated them.

Harry finally managed to sit up, wincing as he disturbed his already burning wounds. But as soon as he had managing to sit up, the clock hit midnight. A surge of power slammed into him, knocking him back on his back. Something else also surfaced.

-S-

_He laughed as his father spun him around, his mother laughing from the background. He was three._

_His mother pushed him away, urging him to run, as the muggles converged on them, brandishing torches, swords, knives, and pitchforks. He watched as his parents were murdered and burned, just because they could do magic. All he found afterwards was his mother’s locket. He was five._

_He literally ran into a blond haired boy, who merely smiled at him and introduced himself as Godric Gryffindor. It was then that he met his first friend. He was eight._

_Godric’s parents sent them both to school, where they would both learn how to use magic properly. They met two girls, one blond, one redhead. Rowena Ravenclaw and Helga Hufflepuff. The four of them became great friends. He was eleven._

_He started to see Godric in a new light. The other boy was beautiful, graceful, brave. He tried to hide it, but apparently Godric felt the same, and had no trouble telling him. He was sixteen._

_The four of them, after they had graduated at the top of their class, as some of the most powerful wizards to date, had liked the idea of teaching. It had been Row’s idea first, as she had gotten into tutoring first, but she had dragged the rest of them into it as well. They decided to build a school. They quickly found a suitable place in Scotland. It was part of the Gryffindor Family’s land, but Godric’s parents happily gave them, saying he would inherit it anyway. He was eighteen._

_The school was finished. It was a large castle with a large great hall, many class rooms of different shapes and sizes, towers, and dungeons. It also had many ‘secret’ passages, most of which were in the dungeon, the part that he had built, just because he wanted to see if any of the students were smart enough to find them. Godric had gotten the same idea. However, there were a few the led to his secret Chamber that were guarded by parseltongue passwords. He was twenty one._

_Teachers had been hired, letters had been sent out to students. They were ready to try out their new school, as well as their house system. He was twenty two._

_He had Godric had had a small, impromptu, sparring fight. Sword against daggers. These fights weren’t anything new, nor were any of their other fights, none of which meant anything, but they had never done them in front of the students before. That was probably what scared them. The girls had sent them both away, so that they could try and calm down the children. He had decided to run an errand the he had been meaning to run, and went into a nearby muggle town, even if he tried to stay as far away from common, non-magical_ muggles _as much as possible. In the middle of a crowd, a searing pain had suddenly appeared between his shoulder blades. As his world went black, he only wished that he could see his lover one more time._

_He was twenty eight._

-S-

Salazar Slytherin opened his eyes for the first time in a thousand years. He looked around the small, barren bedroom that had been his as Harry Potter. It looked utterly muggle, even though it also looked like the occupant was abused. Which he was.

Even when he was raised among them, he was still compiling evidence why muggles should have absolutely nothing to do with the wizarding world. Unless, of course, they were a muggleborn witch or wizard. Then they should come and master their magic, but they shouldn’t involve even their family. Somehow.

Slowly sitting up, Salazar cast a silent, wandless spell to stop the bleeding from the cuts that were all over his body. He would have to get a potion soon to heal the rest of it. He had never been good with healing spells.

For now, he pulled himself up, doing his best to ignore the pain, and pulled on a clean set of clothes. He grabbed his wand and invisibility cloak, and Disapparated out of the house, intent on never returning there ever again.

-S-

Salazar appeared in front of Slytherin Manor, which he had only found years after his parents had died, after he had lived on the streets for three years. Seeing as how the manor greeted him as a long lost friend, without him having to take over the wards again, no one had been inside since.

He smiled. This was where he would stay until school started up again. This was where he would stay until he went back to the place that had always felt the most like home. As soon as he stepped inside, it was clear that no house elf had been there in a long time. He used spells to clear as much away as possible as he walked by.

He was tired, so he made his way to where the master bedroom was, finally noticing the tracks in the dust on the floor. Snake tracks. He smiled, happy that snakes saw his manor fit to use for their home.

Apparently his bed, too, since there were several coiled up on it when he walked inside. All of the snakes hissed threateningly at him, getting themselves into a position to strike it they had to.

**_“_ I mean you no harm, _”_** Salazar hissed in parseltongue. **_“_ I only wish to sssleep. _”_**

**_“_ Who are you? _”_** one of them asked, a beautiful black, female viper.

**_“_ Sssalazar Ssslytherin— _“_ **

That was all he got out before the snakes lost their defensive positions and started to voice their disbelief and excitement.

**“It can’t be!”**

**“Imposssssible.”**

**“Isss it true?”**

Finally, they settled down, and the viper asked they question that they all wanted to know. **“Are you really Sssalazar Ssslytherin?”**

Salazar nodded **.“It ssseemsss that I have been reincarnated for whatever reassson.”**

The snakes got excited again, but the viper’s next question made them all silent again. **“Why do you sssmell hurt?”**

He sighed. **“The family I lived with before didn’t like me much, and there hadn’t been much I could do to protect myssself, for I didn’t know how. In the morning, I will sssee what hasss to be done to get a potion, but for now, I just want to sssleep.”**

The snakes immediately made room for him, which he immediately curled up in. The snakes then proceeded to curl around him as his consciousness faded.

 

 


	2. Diagon Alley

Salazar walked down Diagon Alley, the black viper, Seraphina, wrapped around his forearm. After she had followed him around as he got ready for his trip into the Alley, he had offered her to become his familiar, since he had regretfully killed his last one, and she had been able to shrink herself so she could hide, since now wasn’t the time to be walking around with a large snake around his shoulders.

Magical Viper, he had found out. Extremely poisonous.

He walked into the Apothecary, buying all of the potions ingredients that he needed. He made sure not to move too much because of his wounds, but they still reminded him they were there with every movement he made.

As much had he would have loved to go back to his manor to start brewing the potion he needed, he had to get a few other things in the Alley, as well as his school stuff, since he probably wasn’t going to bother to come back. Besides, it was easier to just get the stuff now, since he was here anyway. And before he had really thought of what had happened the night before.

His final stop, after picking up everything else he needed was Flourish and Blotts. Madam Malkin’s had been necessary, since he needed an entirely new wardrobe. He was _not_ going to continue wearing Dudley’s old hand-me-downs. He had decided to forgo Gringotts, he would deal with looking at his old vault later, when he wasn’t in so much pain.

Inside the bookstore, after getting his school books, Salazar grabbed books on potions, spells, and history. He wanted to catch up on everything that he had missed in the last thousand years, and books would help more than his teachers at Hogwarts could.

Finally, everything he needed was paid for, shrunken, and in his pockets. He walked back to the Leaky Cauldron, and Apparated back to his manor.

-S-

How could had this happen? He hadn’t thought that remembering a past life was even possible. Why would he be any different? Not that he was complaining, necessarily. He now knew that his supposed ‘heir’ really wasn’t even one of his descendants. He had never had kids.

It was also slightly ironic, but perhaps showed his devotion for his lover, that Gryffindor’s Golden Boy was the reincarnated Serpent Lord.

He had to wonder if he was the only one to have this happen to. Were the others reborn as well? Would he get his wish to see his lover again? He hoped so, he would love to see them all again. Maybe they could take their school back from the corrupt and selfish Headmaster that had taken over.

Salazar grinned to himself. Yes, he would look forward to that. Why would he have been reincarnated and the others wouldn’t have? He looked at the vial in his hand, full of the potion he had just finished. Perfect.

He downed the potion, then went over to sit in a chair, stroking Seraphina, who had returned to full size and had coiled up in his lap. He wondered where Godric was. Who was he in this life? It wouldn’t have surprised him if he had practically switched places with him, since Salazar seemed to have acted pretty Gryffindorish as Harry Potter, at least he had acted that way since he was in that house, even though the hat had wanted to put him his own house.

If they had switched places, who was Godric? One person came to mind, that looked almost exactly like him at the age they were now, but it couldn’t be him … could it? But … they didn’t get along! If the person he thought of was Godric Gryffindor, how come they didn’t get along? Or maybe … maybe it was just because he had been confused when they met, and had had no friends before Ron and Hagrid, and hadn’t wanted to lose them.

Salazar sighed. He wouldn’t know for sure why they hadn’t gotten along for the past five years, but in a month, he would know if this person really was his lover reincarnated. And he would see if he could find the girls too. But, he would only get the chance to start looking when he got on the train to go back to Hogwarts.

For now, he would just plan how to get revenge on his stupid muggle relatives.

-S-

Albus Dumbledore sat in his office, going over his plans. Harry was getting a little bit out of control. He would have to bring him back under control. He couldn’t afford for the boy to start asking questions. He would also have to get his trio to forgive each other. Hermione and Ron would be easy, all he would have to do would be to tell them to continue being friends with Harry, and they would do it.

Harry would be a little harder. He had been rather angry the last time they had talked, but he was sure it was nothing that he couldn’t fix. Perhaps he had only been in shock by seeing his godfather get killed. They hadn’t been close, but Harry was so compassionate that perhaps he needed some time to come to terms with it.

Today was his birthday, so as a birthday present, to also help get him under control, he would take Harry out of his relative’s house and take him to the Borrow to get reacquainted with his friends.

Using the floo, he contacted Severus, telling him to come to his office, then walked back to sit back behind his desk. When the dark man stepped through, Albus smiled at him, making sure that his eyes were twinkling.

“Severus, my boy, I’m afraid I need to ask a favor of you.”

“What do you want, now, Albus?”

“I need you to go get Harry from his relatives’ and take him to the Borrow. He deserves to spend time with his friends, especially after what happened.”

Severus sighed. He didn’t want to see Potter at all, and now he had to see him before school had even started. He didn’t want to see him pampered by his relatives, but he supposed that there was nothing he could do about it, there was no arguing with Albus.

“Are you sure that I am the best person to do this, Albus?” Well, he still had a mask to keep up.

“You are the only one free, Severus. Minerva is still making sure all of the muggleborns are all informed and ready to come this year, and all of the other professors are still getting ready for the new school year, and they don’t know Harry as well, anyway. So, yes, you are the best person to do this, Severus.”

Severus sighed. “Yes, sir.” With that, he flooed back to his rooms to get ready to face the brat.

-S-

Severus appeared in front of 4 Privet Drive, sneering at the sameness and _muggleness_ of the houses. He walked up to his destination, and knocked on the door. A few minutes later, a horse-like woman opened the door, but almost immediately tried to shut it again. Severus put his hand on the door before she could.

“Hello, Tuney.”

“YOU! Get out of here! We don’t want your kind here."

He sneered. “ _My_ kind will be out of your hair as soon as you give me Harry Potter.”

“He’s not here, now go away!” She tried to shut the door again, but Severus pushed it back open, glaring at her.

“What do you mean, ‘he’s not here’?”

“He ran away last night, ungrateful brat! Vernon was only giving him what he deserved, and he decided to repay our kindness by disappearing! And good reddens, I say. Why we ever let him stay here is beyond me.” This time, when she went to shut the door, Severus was too stunned to stop her.

What did that mean, ‘giving him what he deserved’? It seemed that his opinion of Potter’s home life was a bit off base. And now, the brat wasn’t even here to prove him wrong. With a sinking feeling, Severus Apparated back to Hogwarts to tell Albus what he had found.


	3. Reunion

September 1st came around relatively quickly, but at the same time, very slowly, after Salazar had gotten used to the fact that he had been reborn. When he woke up on the day he had been waiting for, he was practically bouncing around the manor, making sure he had everything. The snakes all told him to calm down.

But, then a thought he had been avoid made itself known. What if Godric didn’t want him anymore? History didn’t paint him a favorable light, and he suddenly wondered if Godric was the reason for it. When he voiced this thought, the snakes all hissed at him to stop worrying, that his lover’s feelings wouldn’t have changed just because he had gotten himself killed.

Over the past several weeks, all of the snakes in the manor had become even fonder of him as they got to know him. All of them loved him, and probably would have loved to come with him to Hogwarts, but, for now, only Seraphina got that privilege.

When he finally Apparated to King’s Cross, with his trunk shrunken in his pocket and Seraphina wrapped around his neck as an interesting looking necklace, mostly hidden by his cloak, Salazar quickly boarded the train, making sure that no one saw him, not that there were too many people yet. Over the weeks, his appearance had changed slightly, so he looked exactly like he used to, before living as Harry Potter, except a few years younger. His hair, now past his shoulders, hung around his face, since he didn’t feel like tying it back. Everything else was miniscule, just a sharpening of the features or a slight darkening of his eyes, as well as not having to wear glasses anymore. He had managed to hide the scar behind glamour.

**“Are we going to meet your friendsss?”** Seraphina asked quietly.

Salazar nodded. **“Hopefully.”**

He walked up the corridor, looking for his friends, but knowing it was perhaps too early for them to be here. However, after a few minutes, he glanced in a compartment that already had someone inside, and stopped. Inside was Luna Lovegood, but he could see that she was also someone else. He quickly opened the door.

“Rena?”

Her head snapped up. When her eyes landed on him, they widened. “Sal?”

He grinned, stepping into the compartment and shut the door. As soon as he turned around his arms were full of a blonde girl. She was sobbing, saying his name over and over. He sat down, keeping a good grip on her, just as relieved by seeing her. It gave him a reason to put a stop to the insecurities that he had refused to acknowledge. He had been afraid that he would be alone, even if he had never stated as much.

After several minutes, she finally pulled away, wiping her nose. “I’m sorry, but after you died, no one had been the same, especially ‘Ric. And when I woke up with my memories, I was … I don’t know.”

He smirked. “The great Rowena Ravenclaw doesn’t know something? The horror!”

She slapped him on the arm. “Salazar! You’re horrible!” She smiled. “You haven’t changed, even with this life.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Should I have?”

She shook her head. “Definitely not! Like I said, it was never the same after you died.”

“Speaking of, do you know where history got their information?”

“Probably from the rumors that he been spun before we found your knives from where those muggles had burned your body.”

He grunted. “Makes sense.”

They sat there for a little while, just enjoying each other’s presence again. He was happy that his last remaining friend from his life as Harry Potter was also one of his friends from him life as Salazar Slytherin. It told him that she never would have left him, no matter what.

It wasn’t long before the compartment was opened again, and he once again found himself with an arm full of a sobbing girl, this time she had red hair. Rena moved back to her original seat to give her more space beside him.

This one took longer to compose herself, but when she did pull away, he saw Susan Bones beaming up at him, as if she had just seem the greatest thing ever. “Sal! You’re alive! And here! And so are you, Rena!”

Salazar smiled back at her. “I’m happy about it, too, Helga.”

“It would seem that we have all been reborn for some reason. Now all we’re missing is Ricky, and everything, at least between us, will be set right again,” Rena said.

“He’s going to freak when he sees you, Sal. Does either of you know who he is in this life, yet?”

Salazar exchanged glances with Rowena. “I have an idea, but I’m not going to assume anything.” Helga nodded in understanding.

“You should probably come over here, Hel, that way they have room when ‘Ric pounces on him.” Both girls giggled at this.

Salazar scowled at them. “You’re just going to leave me all alone to face the storm that’s likely to kill me again?” They giggled again, nodding. He huffed, mock glaring at them.

While they waited for Godric to make his entrance, the girls swapped theories of what he was going to do once he saw Salazar. After listening to some of their stories, Seraphina had decided it was probably better for her health if she vacated her current spot, and slithered over to settle between the girls, who had paused to smile at the snake and ask what he name was. They were long used to him being a parselmouth, and knew that any snake he took the school was not liable to bite anyone. Which was why they had let him raise a basilisk in his Chamber. A basilisk that he regretfully killed in this life.

He had finally took out a book to read— _Dark Arts: Most Useful or Useless Spells or Rituals,_ which he had taken out of his manor library—when the compartment door slammed open and he was thrown onto his back on the seat, with Draco Malfoy’s snarling face mere inches from his own. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Helga and Rowena shut the door and cast a spell at it, presumably to make sure that no one outside of the compartment could see. A good thing, since people would stare, even if they weren’t enemies this life.

“Salazar Slytherin,” Godric growled at him, sounding more dangerous and angry than he had ever heard him, in either life. “How _dare_ you do that to me?! How DARE you die on me! You weren’t supposed to do that! You were just supposed to get that stupid errand done and come back to me. Not let me wonder for several days before I found your knives. I almost wish you had run away.” His face crumpled, and he buried it in Salazar’s neck, becoming the third person to cry on him in the last two hours.

Salazar wrapped his arms around him, petting his hair, which was also longer. “I know. I’m sorry. I hadn’t meant to die, but I hadn’t noticed that any of the muggles were going to kill me. I know I probably should’ve taken someone one with me anyway, but I hadn’t thought it would take very long. I’m sorry.”

Godric wrapped his arms around him, gripping him tightly, as if he would disappear if he let go. Salazar just laid there, petting his hair while he cried, keeping his eyes on his lover. He didn’t even notice when the girls smiled softly at them.

The train had started moving by the time that Godric had stopped crying and pulled away, but he never let Salazar go. He leaned back down to softly peck Salazar’s lips, but then sat up, maneuvering both of them into a more proper position, with Salazar, who was by now pouting, leaning against Godric.

“I don’t get a better one?”

The girls, including the snake, started giggling like crazy at that, while Godric only smirked at him. Salazar glared at all of them, turning his head away and pouted out the window in a childish gesture.

“You know, it’s kind of funny how you both got each other’s houses,” Helga commented.

“Actually, the hat had wanted to put me in my own house, but I told it to put me in Gryffindor, only because of what I had heard from Hagrid and Weasley about Slytherin. Really going to have to change that,” Salazar said, muttering the last part to himself.

Godric nodded. “It wanted to put me in Gryffindor, but considering who I was—am—I didn’t allow it to. My father probably would’ve had a heart attack if it had.”

Salazar snorted, amused. The petty prejudices of this day were getting to be a bit too much.

“So, are you two just going to ignore your past rivalry?” They both just looked at her, causing her to blush. “Sorry, stupid question.”

Godric smiled at her. “It was actually a good question, Hel. Really, we should probably be acting as if nothing has happened, but everyone knows that ‘Harry Potter’ and his friends aren’t getting along, so many will just see it as a me taking advantage of it for Voldemort or something.”

“So how are the rest of us going to act toward each other at school? Sal and I were known to still be friends after the events of last year, but what about Hel? She had never really been friends with any of us,” Rowena asked.

Salazar just shrugged. “Why try to hide it? Like Ric said, I’m not friends with really any one in my house anymore, so I don’t see why it matters. Besides, who cares what anyone else thinks? When we come out as the founders, it will become clear then.”

“And Dumbledore?”

Salazar’s smile was feral. “I rather doubt he will fare much better than Voldemort.”

The four sat there in silence for a while, Salazar leaning against Godric, just staring out the window, loving the warmth of his partner at his back. Godric loved hugging Salazar to him, having felt like he was missing a part of himself when he had died. Rowena read the Quibbler upside down, like Luna always did. Helga just absently stroked Seraphina’s scales while watching the other students pass by their compartment.

“Um … Godric, what about you? Do you have the … you know?” Helga finally asked.

Without moving his arms from around Salazar’s waist, Godric pulled up his left sleeve to expose his bare forearm. “I managed to avoid it. I never wanted it, and both of my parents knew this, but father hadn’t really known how he was going to keep me out of it if Voldie really wanted to have me marked. But he managed to get him off of it for the mean time.”

Salazar smirked. “Not sure how he would’ve reacted if he knew that he wanted to mark Godric Gryffindor.”

“I’m more worried about how my parents would react to that.”

“Are we going to tell our families?” Helga asked.

“For now,” Rena said, “it would be best if we kept it to ourselves.”

Just then, Hermione and Ron stopped outside of their compartment door. Hermione frowned, then opened the door, already getting into a lecture. “You shouldn’t put up a spell so no one can see you. It’s against the rules. What if … Harry?”

Salazar stared coolly at her. “Granger, Weasley.”

Ron’s face went red when he saw the position that Harry was in. “Harry, mate, what are you doing with Malfoy?!”

Godric raised an eyebrow. “What does it look like, Weasel? It’s not like you care about him anymore, so what do you care?”

“What are you talking about? Of course we care about him! He’s our best mate!” Ron yelled.

“Harry, we are sorry about how we reacted last year, but it was a lot to take in. We’re fine now. There is no reason to go running to the enemy,” Hermione stated, stepping closer.

Salazar hissed at them in parseltongue, **“Get away from me, bitch,”** then continued, a bit more civilly, in English. “I’m not running to the enemy, simply going to people who see me for me, and do not hang around just because I’m famous for something I can’t even remember. Now, leave.”

She had stepped away when he had hissed at her, but instead of leaving, she had, once again, stepped closer. “We are not going to abandon you. We are not your friends for your fame, but because we know who you are. These people will never be able to see you for who you really are.”

“Go back into the hole you crawled out of!” Helga snapped, making both of the intruders snap their heads over to her. “We know him better already then you ever will. And I do believe he told you to leave. So, do so. And leave him, and the rest of us alone. And tell Dumbledore to stop using people for his own personal gain!”

Helga got up and practically shoved them out of the compartment, causing the other three to stare at her. Helga never got angry at anyone, and she certainly never shoved anyone like that. When she sat back down, she noticed their amazed stares and asked, “What?”

At that, all three of them broke out in cheers and applause and congratulations, causing her to blush, ducking her head.

“Never thought she would be the one to do that,” Godric commented, causing Salazar to laugh and nod in agreement.


	4. Homecoming

Hogwarts welcomed them enthusiastically. When they passed the wards, which also welcomed them, and gave them back their power over them without alerting Dumbledore, she had demanded that they hurry up, sensing that all four of her creators where there once again. She hugged them tightly in her own way, almost refusing to let go, forcing them to stop walking while they promised that they wouldn’t be going anywhere. Salazar especially got a desperate hug. Even the other students seemed to notice the air of excitement with the castle and the way the enchantments in the Great Hall, when they finally reached it, changed into bright colors and the symbols for each house appeared where a sky should’ve been.

Salazar was smiling, loving the way the castle felt like the mother that he had never had. It was only then that he realized how the castle had helped him over the years. When he asked, she told him that she hadn’t known that he would turn into Salazar, but that she had liked him anyway and had decided to help.

When they got to the Great Hall, the four friends separated to the four different houses, Salazar trying his best to find a seat away from any of his former friends. Seraphina hissed comfortingly at him, able to pick up on his agitation when Ron and Hermione sat in front of them and started to ask about what had happened earlier on the train and trying to apologize about their behavior at the end of last year. He ignored them.

When all of the little firsties were sorted, Dumbledore stood up. “Welcome back for another wonderful year! I hope everyone had a wonderful summer holiday. Now, I would like to introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Professor Lucius Malfoy.” He clapped politely as Godric’s father stood up from his spot next to Snape. This declaration stunned many, including Lucius’s own son, who looked just as surprised as everyone else when Salazar looked over to him.

“This year, we are going to have a special contest that only happens every fifty years or so. The contest is only for Sixth and Seventh years, however”—most everyone else started complaining, but Dumbledore silenced them before going on—“The contest is this, four lucky people will get to the chance to pretend to be one of the Founders. Anyone from any house can sign up to be any of the Founders. If you are picked, you will have to do several tasks, but before you start to panic, this is nothing like the Triwizard Tournament. These tasks will simply teach us more about our school’s history. If you are picked, you will have to share quarters with the other ‘Founders’, but the boys will not be able to enter the girls’ rooms, and vice versa. During free time, there will be a sign up sheet here in the Great Hall, if you wish to sign up to be one. Winners will be picked in two weeks.”

He went on with his normal announcements, but Salazar wasn’t paying attention. He smiled amusedly at Godric when he looked his way. This would be a _very_ interesting year.

-S-

After the feast, the four of them met up, Godric telling another prefect that he had to do something. Rena was bursting with excitement.

“This is an excellent idea! It’s a perfect way to teach the history of this castle!”

Salazar grinned at her. “This will be fun. At least, it will be if I can get Granger and Weasley off my back.”

Godric laughed. “You did look a bit annoyed there.”

“I looked _a bit_ annoyed? I was about to go on a rampage if Granger didn’t stop apologizing and Weasley didn’t stopped telling me that we should both sign up for Godric Gryffindor.”

“What, you don’t want to be me?”

Sal let his eyes run up and down his lover’s body, scowling mockingly. “Why would I ever?”

Ric growled, swiping at him.

“It would make it easier, wouldn’t it? If we all won. We would have quarters all to ourselves,” Hel said, sounding very happy.

“He really should make sure that no one could enter anyone else’s room, if he’s worried about the winners taking advantage of not being in a normal dorm. What if they like their same gender?”

“Shh!” Sal said, glaring at her. “Don’t bring it up with him. I rather like him not blocking me from Ric’s room should we win.”

“You could probably get through them, anyway, Sal.”

“It’s too much work.”

The four of them walked around the school, bickering about random things that came up and just enjoying being in the castle with their memories, and with each other, again. Eventually, however, they walked by the DADA classroom.

“Draco.”

They turned to see Lucius Malfoy standing in the doorway, his eyes apprising the company his son was apparently keeping. He did not sneer at Salazar, as had expected him to, instead he smiled softly.

“You did not tell me that you were friends with Harry Potter. Did you think I would have gotten mad? I wouldn’t have, I assure you.”

Godric shook his head. “It’s not that. We weren’t really friends until we met earlier on the train. We talked things over, and came to a friendship.”

He nodded. “And who are these lovely ladies?”

Rena smiled dreamily, back in her Luna personality, while Helga blushed slightly.

“This is Luna Lovegood and Susan Bones.”

Lucius inclined his head. “A pleasure to meet all of you.” All three replied in kind, Salazar a bit in surprise. This was a side he had never seen, nor known about, in Lucius Malfoy.

“Father, why didn’t you tell me that you were going to be teaching?”

He smiled amusedly at his son. “I wanted to surprise you.”

Godric grumbled, “Certainly worked.”

“Now, I believe you four should be getting to bed. Wouldn’t want you to be out after curfew, even if you are a prefect, Draco.”

They had continued on for a few more feet, only to be stopped once again, except this time it was by a scowling Snape. The potions professor didn’t look necessarily happy to see them, and they could see a confused light in his eyes as he examined them.

After a few minutes, Snape finally turned to Salazar. “Potter, the Headmaster would like to see you. Perhaps you could explain where you were this summer, since you decided that you were too good to stay at your house, where you were safe from any … unwanted visitors.”

Sal looked over at his friends, motioning to them to go on, that he would be fine. When they started down the hallway, he turned back to Snape. “Lead the way, professor.”

-S-

Fawkes had been just as happy to see him as his friends and the castle had been. As soon as he stepped into the office, the phoenix had landed on his shoulder and hugged his head with his wings. Snape had given him a weird look when he finally got Fawkes’ wing out his face. Dumbledore only smiled in his grandfatherly way, perhaps looking a bit more pleased by his phoenix’s actions than anything.

“Ah, Harry. Good to see you, my boy. Lemon drop?”

Salazar shook his head, absently wondering what his obsession with the candies were. “No, sir.”

Dumbledore nodded, popping one into his own mouth. “I was very worried about you this summer, Harry. Would you like to tell what you were doing?”

Salazar plastered a sheepish and ashamed look on his face and looked down, making sure that his Occlumency shields were up and strong, just in case. “I just wanted to see a bit of the world. I never get to go anywhere. I figured that I would be fine as long as no one knew that I was out of the house.”

When he looked up, Dumbledore gave him a disappointed look, and he felt a nudge at his mind. He mentally snorted, only a baby wouldn’t be able to feel that intrusion. How he had never noticed the old coot looking into his mind before was beyond him.

Dumbledore looked faintly surprised, probably at the fact that he couldn’t get into his mind, but covered it. “Well, I must say that I am disappointed that you would do that without at least telling me. If you had asked, I’m sure anyone in the Order would have loved to take you on a day trip somewhere.”

Sal nodded. “I promise I won’t do it again.” _Not._

“Now, my boy, I was wondering what you thought about this year’s events?”

“They sound interesting. Perhaps I will sign up. But, sir, how are the winners chosen?”

Dumbledore smiled. “The winners are chosen by the Sorting Hat randomly from the list that it is given.”

Sal nodded, suppressing the urge to smirk to himself. This might just be too easy. “Are we done, sir? I would like to get a good night’s sleep before class tomorrow.”

The Headmaster nodded. “Yes, Harry, you may go.”

Salazar walked away, only stopping at the doorway when Fawkes had yet to leave his shoulder. The phoenix only dug his talons into his shoulder at his attempts to dislodge him.

Dumbledore laughed. “It seems that he would like to stay with you for a while, Harry. Don’t worry, perhaps it would be good for him to go with you for a while.”

Salazar nodded, then continued to walk out the door, rolling his shoulder to get the damn bird to release his tight grip.

-S-

Dumbledore smiled. Fawkes reaction to Harry had pleased him. It told him that his weapon was still Light, despite his little impromptu road trip. And the fact that the bird wanted to stay with him, told the Headmaster that his familiar had been just as worried about Harry as he had been. Wouldn’t do for his weapon to get hurt or change sides. Or worse, completely turn against him.

It had surprised him when he had been unable to get into Harry’s mind, but he supposed that this was a good thing. Voldemort wouldn’t be able to get in and start to control him. But, still, it would be easier if he knew what his weapon was thinking. He wasn’t entirely convinced that that had been the only reason that Harry had left his home. If it had been, he would have told someone.

And there was still the fact that he needed to get his trio back together. Ron and Hermione hadn’t put up much of a fuss when he asked them to be friends with Harry still, but Harry had seemed to be ignoring them at the feast. And he had left with Draco Malfoy, of all people. Sure, Luna Lovegood and Susan Bones had been there as well, but Dumbledore still planned to break Harry and Luna apart.

At the moment, he wanted to know why Harry had suddenly become friendly with Draco. Sure, he had hired the boy’s father, but it still wouldn’t be good for his weapon to be friendly with a Death Eater’s son.

“Was it really wise to let Fawkes go with him,” Severus drawled.

“Fawkes will make sure that Harry stays on the side of the Light. Perhaps it will keep people from questioning him until he comes to his senses and stops being friendly with the Malfoy boy.”

Severus clenched his jaw to keep from defending his godson, he knew it would look suspicious and would do no good anyway. He accepted the answer without further question and walked out.

-S-

Salazar walked away from the Headmaster’s office, absently switching between stroking Fawkes’ feathers and Seraphina’s scales, already planning how he and his friends would take over this little competition and turn it into something that could help them get their school back. And change his reputation.


	5. A Bet?

Over the next week, the school was abuzz with talk as people signed up for the Founders position and speculation as to who would get which position. It seemed that people thought that Harry would be Godric Gryffindor and Draco would be Salazar Slytherin. No one could agree on who would be the girls, though.

During dinner one day, Hermione, who, along with Ron, insisted on sitting with him, despite his obvious discomfort and annoyance with it, announced that she would be signing up to be Rowena Ravenclaw. Ron had looked almost affronted, claiming that no one should sign up for someone else’s house, even if the founder of their house was a male. Hermione had huffed, saying that it at least wasn’t Slytherin she was signing up for.

Even during class, the students still speculated. The teachers indulged them somewhat, but still got mad when they got too off track. Especially Snape. Lucius was surprisingly lenient, and a good teacher, but only if his students actually put work into what they were doing.

On Friday, exactly one week before the winners would be announced, the four of them walked into the Great Hall, which was full of students mulling around. Salazar grinned at his friends; it just made it easier that there were so many here to watch this, it wouldn’t do for them to make an uproar when the winners were called. And, even better, Snape and Malfoy were watching over the students, both standing over by the signup sheets.

They walked up together, the girls going for their respective house sheets, the boys going to, what everyone else thought, each other’s, both putting on a reluctant, and, for Ric’s case, put out, face. They pretended to hesitate a few feet away from the table, glancing at each other. Both were aware of the stares and whispers coming from behind them as the students spotted them.

Salazar was the first one to approach, putting on some of the Gryffindor bravery he was known for in this life. He had just picked up the quill to write his name on the signup sheet for Salazar Slytherin when Snape’s voice stopped him.

“And just what do you think you’re doing, Potter?”

Sal looked up embarrassedly. “We lost a bet. Who knew girls were so smart?” He quickly signed his name before anyone else could stop him. The silence was deafening, and when he turned around, everyone was staring at him in disbelief. He flashed when a smile before he grabbed Godric’s arm and pulled him closer to the table, handing him a quill to sign his name on the other sheet.

“Do I have to?” Ric whined, though he would vehemently deny it, especially as Draco.

“Yes,” Rena answered simply.

“It was part of the deal,” Hel added. “You shouldn’t have agreed if you didn’t want to do it this badly.”

Godric was still looked reluctant, so Sal added, “Scared?”

That did the trick, as he glared at him, then signed his name, glared at him again, then swept out of the room. Sal shrugged at the girls, then followed, leaving a burst of exclamations and whispers of disbelief and amusement behind them.

-S-

They started laughing as soon as they were far enough away from the Great Hall. Arguments could still be heard coming from the room they had just left as the students tried to figure out what had just happened.

Godric grinned. “What do you think Dumbles is going to do when he finds out about this?”

“Probably try to change it,” Salazar answered.

“Good thing we have the castle on our side, then.”

They ran down the corridor like children, laughing and pushing each other the entire way as they made their way to the seventh floor corridor. The Room of Requirement and the Chamber of Secrets were usually the rooms that they had gathered in before. While they had other places to go, like the Headmaster’s office, when they wanted to be alone, but these two promised not to be found by students if they didn’t want to for a while.

As soon as they were in the room, Salazar had a pillow in his hand, confusing the other three, until he grinned and swung at Godric. The girls shrieked, moving away from him while Godric merely summoned one of his own and retaliated. The girls summoned some of their own and joined the fight.

Thus, started their first pillow fight in a thousand years.

An hour later, the four were laying on the floor, feathers of dozens pillows surrounding them. All of them were grinning broadly. They could feel Hogwarts’ amusement as they caught their breath.

**“Massster, wasss that entirely necessssary?”**

Salazar looked to where the hissing had come from, and saw Seraphina, full size, coiled up in the corner of the room with feathers on the ground next to her, looking somewhat ruffled. He grinned at her. **“Of courssse it wasss, Sssera. Sssurely, over the past week you learned that we have a tendenccy to do strange thingsss?”**

**“The four of you have not had much time to ssspend together over the last week. I have, however, noticed, over the past month that I have known you, that you are sssomewhat … ecccentric.”**

He raised an eyebrow at her. **“If you noticced that, then why did you asssk?”** The snake huffed, but didn’t answer.

That was one of the things that needed to change about his house. When he was alive, Slytherin House was more cheerful, never not becoming friends with someone just because they were in a different house or they weren’t purebloods. They even, in Salazar’s opinion, came up with the best ideas for pranks in the seemingly never ending prank war.

The prank war had originally started between Salazar and Godric, but eventually their houses got involved, with a few inputs from the girls and their houses. That was probably what had started the rivalry between Slytherin and Gryffindor.

If only the new students hadn’t heard the rumors—playful ones that came from competitions to come up with the most ridiculous ones they could—from when they couldn’t find on Sal’s body. If they hadn’t heard them, his reputation wouldn’t be so bad and his house wouldn’t be seen as the dark house.

“What were you two hissing about?” Godric asked.

“She just wanted to know if the pillow fight was necessary.”

“Oh. … It was.”

“Yep.”

-S-

It took a few days, but eventually Dumbledore called them to his office. Salazar and Godric were in potions at the time, but since it was so near the end, it didn’t matter. Salazar, being who he was, had decided that he wanted to stump Snape and be the best person in class, topping even Hermione. It was amusing watching Snape try to find _something_ about his potions the insult him about.

So far, he couldn’t find anything.

Snape had seemed almost relieved to send them off to the Headmaster’s office. As soon as they were far enough from the classroom, the two boys started laughing. This time, Salazar had been the first one finished, by far. During class time, Sal and Ric had taken to talking loudly about random topics without a care about everyone else. The Gryffindors got extremely annoyed by this, the Slytherins, who had seemed to take a strange liking to him now that he was friends with their ‘prince’, joined in sometimes.

Today, they had gotten into an insult war.

When it had started, Salazar’s housemate had looked so relieved, as if they thought he had returned to his right mind. As the class had gone on, and Sal had finished his potion, they figured out this was not the case. The Slytherins found it highly amusing.

Salazar and Godric quickly made their way to the Headmaster’s office, Sal humming all the way. No one was waiting for them to open the way with the password, and instead of waiting, Sal just hissed at the gargoyle, making it jump to the side.

“Won’t he ask about that?”

Sal shrugged. “If he does, I’ll just say he never gave us the password and just felt like trying to see if that would work.” Godric accepted this, since he hadn’t really wanted to wait, and it wasn’t like it was a huge secret that Sal—Harry—was a parselmouth.

Salazar also didn’t bother to knock on the door, and just walked in. Fawkes, who had resumed his post at watching the Headmaster, at Salazar’s request, thrilled, and greeted both boys, causing Dumbledore to be confused when Draco got the same greeting as Harry did.

“Ah, my boys. Glad that you are here now. Lemon drop?” They declined. “I’ve been meaning to ask you two boys something. Won’t you sit?”

The two boys sat, Fawkes sat on Godric’s shoulder. It was evident to both of the founders that the phoenix was happy to have both his master and his master’s lover alive and healthy.

“About the contest. Why did you two put your names on the wrong list?”

Salazar furrowed his brow. “The wrong one? I’m was pretty sure I signed up to be Salazar Slytherin—“

“Exactly! Why did you do that? You housemates are very concerned.”

He snorted. “Then they don’t know how to take a joke. Slytherin, on the other hand, seems fine with it. Rather amused, actually.”

While Salazar said this, Godric pretended to sulk and look put out.

“Why, Harry? Why did you put your name on that form?”

“I thought that any one from any house could sign up to be any of the founders.”

“But, you will get people worried should you get picked. Slytherin wasn’t the nicest person, he was rather dark. And the people wouldn’t like it if you were picked to play someone so dark. But don’t worry, I fixed the problem. You both are on the right form now, so no worries.”

Salazar’s eye twitched. If this old coot knew exactly who he was talking to, he would have been more careful of what he said. Godric and Fawkes both seemed to have frozen, waiting to see what he was going to do.

Salazar took a deep breath to keep his magic, which had always had a darker aura to others, or so he was told, no matter what type of magic he used, under control. It wouldn’t do to let the old man see what he magic really looked like. He was only able to keep his temper by telling himself that the old man would get what was coming to him eventually.

He stood up, and fixed the Headmaster with a glare. “It was just a bet, Headmaster. Nothing to have gotten so upset over.” With that, he stalked out of the room, barely noticing Godric following him or Fawkes’ song coming from his perch beside the desk.


	6. The Winners

The day finally came when the winners of this contest would be called. His ‘friends’ were surrounding him, assuring him that he would never be picked as Salazar Slytherin and the Dumbledore probably changed which list his name was on. They seemed convinced that he would be picked as Godric Gryffindor. The idiots.

The entire day students from the other houses were grinning at him, wishing him luck. Even Slytherin took part in this, also wishing Draco luck. Godric had told the other three that they seemed to find the idea amusing, even beyond it just being another way to annoy the Gryffindors. It seemed that the Slytherins that they had known when Salazar had been alive, the ones that had had no problem showing their eccentric side outside of their house, was still there, just kept in the common room. And they were all ecstatic that the ‘Golden Boy’ had a chance of representing the dark side. It was only better that this would annoy the Gryffindors and Dumbles all the more.

The choosing would come at the end of dinner, so Salazar had to suffer with these idiots who knew nothing about who he was. Only Neville was fine with the chance of him representing Slytherin. The timid boy had smiled encouragement at him, and had even went to sit with him, but he got pushed out of the way by the others, and only smiled helplessly when Sal had sent him a pleading look.

Finally, Dumbledore stood up. “Tonight, we will choose who our Founders will be represented by.” Cheers broke out, even by Slytherin, who were usually more refined, causing the other houses to look at them. They only grinned at them. Some of the Hufflepuffs seemed a bit scared by that.

McGonagall brought out the Sorting Hat and set it on the stool it usually sat on when waiting to sort first years. It sang a song about the Founders, describing each of them, confusing most, except for Slytherin House, when it said that Salazar was misunderstood. The Ravenclaws seemed to want to start discussing that, but managed to refrain themselves.

When it was done, Dumbledore stepped forward again. “As I said at the Welcoming Feast, the winners will be sharing rooms, so even if you do not like each other, please refrain from fighting each other. For some of the tasks you will have to do throughout the year, you will have to work together. Hopefully, you will be able to work together. Now, we will start with the girls.”

McGonagall took his place, called out “Helga Hufflepuff!” before stuffing a roll of parchment under the hat.

The hat was silent for a few moments, seemingly not doing anything, but the four founders could feel it somehow consult with the castle. They inwardly grinned to themselves. No matter what Dumbledore tried, he wouldn’t be able to stop the castle.

“SUSAN BONES!”

Hufflepuff cheered, happy that one of their own was representing them. They gained polite clapping from Slytherin and Ravenclaw, as well as more cheers from Gryffindor. Helga walked up to stand in front of Hufflepuff table, smiling, looking somewhat embarrassed at being the center of attention.

McGonagall took the parchment from under the hat and replaced it with another one, calling out, “Rowena Ravenclaw!”

The same thing happened between the hat and the castle before “LUNA LOVEGOOD!” was called out.

This time, Ravenclaw was cheering the loudest as Rena walked to stand in front of her table.

Salazar looked over to Ric, and they shared a grin. So far, so good.

Dumbles announced that it was now time for the boys.

“Godric Gryffindor!”

This time, it took slightly longer, and it was obvious that the Gryffindors were ready to start cheering for Harry. Slytherin also looked to be holding its breath. Finally, “DRACO MALFOY!”

Gryffindor sat in stunned silence while Slytherin cheered loudly, happy that it was who they had wanted it to be. They loved tormenting the Gryffindors. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw also cheered. Salazar just laughed, cheering. Neville clapped as well, but everyone else at the Gryffindor table were silent, as if they couldn’t get it through their head what had happened.

Up that the head table, Lucius Malfoy clapped for his son, who was grinning evilly at the Gryffindors he was now standing in front of. Severus also grudgingly clapped, a dreadful feeling in his belly, especially as he looked at the only person who was cheering at the Gryffindor table.

Dumbledore felt as if all of his plans were crumbling around him. How could a _Malfoy_ have gotten chosen for this? It made no sense. But he supposed it was fine, as long as Harry didn’t get chosen for the last position.

McGonagall, who was smiling softly, much to the bewilderment of her house, replaced the parchment under the hat with the last one, calling out, “Salazar Slytherin!”

Everyone fell silent, Gryffindor looking fearful of this result while the other houses were anticipating the name that would be called. The wait was the longest. It seemed that the castle and the hat loved to keep everyone in suspense, but eventually the winner was called.

“HARRY POTTER!”

The entire hall was cheering and clapping. Except for Gryffindor house, who looked as if their worst dreams and come true. And Snape, who looked like he wanted to bang his head on the wall, much to Lucius’ amusement. Neville cheered, grinning at Salazar as he got up and joined his friends with standing in front of the entire school.

Salazar was rather pleased with Slytherin’s reaction. It told him that the house that he had always wanted his students to be was still there, even with the ridicule they had to endure. He was proud of them.

He could feel Dumbledore’s gaze boring into his back, but he ignored him. Instead, he just grinned at the Slytherins. He could deal this the corrupt Headmaster later.

-S-

When everyone was dismissed, the Heads of each House and the Headmaster lead them to their new rooms. Lucius Malfoy also came along, smiling amusedly at Snape. The four friends were amused to see that only Snape and Dumbledore were upset by the winners, Dumbles more so than Snape. The others, including Lucius, just smiled at them. Apparently, they didn’t share Dumbles’ opinion that this would be bad for publicity.

Not that either Godric or Salazar cared.

The common room of their new rooms seemed to be a combination of all four houses, but luckily, it didn’t look too bad, the furniture at least didn’t seem to clash too badly. The walls of the castle were allowed to show through, which helped.

“For the rest of the year, these will be your rooms. You will still have to attend classes and any other duties as before, so there will be no slacking off just because you were picked for this,” McGonagall said. “Your rooms are the house colors of the house that you represent. Boys cannot enter the girls’ rooms; girls cannot enter the boys’ rooms.”

Salazar raised his hand, causing the teacher to look at him with amusement, the girls warily step away from him and Godric to grin in anticipation. “Are we allowed to bring things out that belong in our respective rooms?”

“Like what?” Snape snapped.

Sal shrugged. “I dunno. Like a lamp.”

Everyone looked at him. This time, all of his friends stepped away. The teachers looked slightly worried for his reason of wanting to bring out a lamp.

“If you need a lamp, my boy, there are more light sources in this room. There would be no reason to bring it out of your room.” Dumbledore seemed to miss the implications completely.

Salazar nodded, deciding not to correct the Headmaster on what he had meant by that. It was probably easier that way. Besides, there were easier ways. Instead, he turned around and walked inside the green and silver door into the matching room. He smiled at his favorite colors, absently noticing that his stuff was already siting at the edge of the bed at as he jumped up on to it and started bouncing.

The door was still open, so he could feel everyone else watching him, but he didn’t care. They eventually went back to talking, explaining that the first task would be in a month, then all of the teachers, except Snape, Malfoy, and Dumbledore, left.

Dumbledore walked into his room, and Salazar stopped jumping on his bed, instead crossing his legs in mid-air and letting himself fall onto his bed in a sitting position.

“I’m sorry, my boy. I don’t know how this happened. I was sure that I switched the names, but I was also sure that neither of you would get picked for these positions. I’m truly sorry this happened.” He looked so sincerely sorry for this ‘terrible’ turn of events that Salazar almost gagged.

“It’s okay, Headmaster. I’m sure I can deal with it just fine,” Sal said, hoping that the old coot would leave.

He did.

Once he was out of his room and out of rooms all together, Salazar walked back into the common room, seeing that the girls had gone to their rooms, leaving only Godric, his father, and Snape sitting on the couches and chairs. Salazar walked around to sit on the couch next to Ric, looking calculating at the two men.

“I assume you two, or at least Mr. Malfoy, will be in here a lot?”

Both men raised an eye brow at him, but did not answer the negative.

“Can you two keep something from the Headmaster?”

Snape snorted. “Surely, _you_ do not have something that you want to keep from him. What big secret would you have to keep from Dumbledore?”

“Oh, it’s not that big, I just don’t think he would react well. I mean, he didn’t like the positions in this that me and Draco got, so I doubt he would like this. And I don’t want to her to have to hide herself every time someone besides us are in here.”

“Her?”

Salazar reached up and unwrapped Seraphina from her place around his neck. Surprisingly, no one had even noticed that he had a new necklace, much less that it was a live snake. As soon as he set her in his lap, she resumed her full size. The two men started at the black snake, even more so when both of the boys stroked her and she let out a type of purring hiss.

“This is Seraphina.”

She stared at them with a contented expression, flicking her tongue out. **“Hello.”**

Lucius smiled tentatively at her. “What kind of snake is she?”

“A black forest viper.”

“Poisonous?”

“Very.”

Lucius looked at the girls, who had come out again. “Are you two okay with this?”

Hel smiled. “We were aware that he had her. We know that she will not bite anyone, even if they get her extremely angry. She has more control than that.” Rena nodded along with her.

Salazar stood up with Seraphina, still full size, draped across his shoulders, her tail wrapped around his arm with her neck wrapped around the other one. He held out his hand that her head was over. “Don’t worry. She won’t hurt you.”

Draco’s father bravely reached up and stroked the snake’s head, his eyes widening a fraction at her smooth scales. While he was stroking her, she smoothly moved from Salazar’s shoulders to Lucius’, causing the man to freeze.

“Don’t worry,” Salazar reassured as he sat back down, leaving the two grown men, as Snape had stood up when the snake had moved, to deal with Seraphina’s urge to get them both to stroke her. She was a rather loving snake. Most of the time. The rest she was rather vicious.

As the men cautiously dealt with having a snake wrap herself around them, Ric looked slightly nervous.

“Are you sure you’re okay with this?”

That distracted Lucius well enough as Seraphina focused on trying to get Snape to pet her, as he was resisting. “I wouldn’t have cared if you had been sorted into Gryffindor in the first place, Draco. I respect and understand your decision not to join the Dark Lord, even if he does not. This is hardly any different.”

Ric smiled, then sat back with an air of exasperation. “Well if I had known that …”

He looked confused. “What was that?”

Sal grinned. “Apparently, the hat had wanted to put him into Gryffindor, but he refused because of you. Just as it had wanted to put me in Slytherin, but I was afraid of what everyone was saying about the house, and didn’t let it.”

Snape looked horrified. “Potter … in Slytherin?”

Lucius laughed at the look on his friend, who now had a large black snake wrapped around him, nuzzling her face into his neck, almost as if she was trying to comfort him. “Apparently, you two aren’t at all what everyone else thinks you are.”

Sal and Ric grinned at each other. “Nope!”

Lucius nodded, and they sat in silence as Severus tried to get the damned snake off of him, but she seemed determined to stay. Finally, he stood up. “We should be going. You four should make sure you are settled in. I think I will take you out shopping tomorrow.”

“Why?” Helga asked.

Malfoy senior smiled. “You have to look the part, don’t you?”

With that, he walked to the door, waiting for Salazar to help Snape take Seraphina from him, and then the two men were gone.

Seraphina wrapped herself around Salazar again as he leaned against his lover. **“I sssmelt evil from those two, but it wasn’t coming from them. Almossst as if it was an entirely different sssource all together.”**

**“The Dark Mark?”**

She shook her head. **“Dark and evil are not the sssame thing. This was evil, not dark.”**

**“The Dark Mark is Voldemort’sss symbol. I’m assuming the evil you smelt on them was the Dark Mark, since Voldemort isss evil, and both of them have the Mark.”**

**“Oh, _him,_ ”** she spat, looking angry. **“He givesss sssnakes a bad name. He makesss usss ssseem evil, when we are not.”**

**“What about me? People sssee me as evil.”**

**“Humansss think that you are evil, but we know that they are wrong. We passed down sstories from the snakes that lived with you. We know that what the humansss think are terribly wrong. It wasssn’t your fault. But _Voldemort_ makesss usss look even worssse, in a way the rumorsss about you never did.”**

**“Oh.”**

**“Isss there a way to take the evilnesss from those two? I like them.”**

**“Maybe.”** Salazar looked to his friends, we were watching him, all of them looking curious. “She said that they smelled of evil, and wanted to know if there was a way to take it from them.”

“The Dark Mark?” Rena asked. Salazar nodded. “There might be. But it might just be easier to kill Voldemort. But I’ll look into it and see if I could find anything.”

Godric smiled. “I hope there is. Father said that at first it seemed like a good idea, because the Wizarding World does need to change, but Voldemort became crazy with power. Especially after his rebirth.”

Salazar nodded. “Sounds like him. Very few people can take that much power without it affecting them negatively. But for now, we have to take our school back, because our school has fallen victim to someone like that.”


	7. Shopping

The door burst open, slamming against the wall and startling the two men lying on the bed. Salazar nearly fell to the floor when he tried to sit up too fast. He was only saved by Godric, who also looked rather irritated by being woken up so suddenly. Sal could hear laughter coming from the common room, and angry hisses from the headboard where Seraphina had wrapped herself around the bars for the night.

“What was that for?” Godric asked angrily.

Salazar rolled his eyes, lying back down. “What do you think it was for? It was likely payback for all the times for all the time we did it to them.” Ric huffed, but his only reply was to flop back down next to his lover.

“Get up, you two,” Helga called. “Remember, we are going with Lucius Malfoy to go shopping today.”

“If you don’t hurry up, I suppose we could get Hogwarts to help us,” Rowena called in Luna’s dreamy voice.

Salazar opened his eyes to eye the wall across from him suspiciously. Finally, he sighed, pushing on his bedmate. “Come on, get up. We have no idea what this castle is capable of anymore. Better not find out now.”

Ric groaned, but slowly got off the bed and walked to his own room. Sal got up and started to get ready for the day.

-S-

An hour later, the four friends were sitting out in the common room, waiting for Draco’s father to gather them to go shopping. Sal was leaning against Ric with his eyes closed. Ric was barely keeping his own eyes open. The _girls_ , on the other hand, were talking about what they wanted to get. They didn’t seem to care that the guys were still half asleep and were talking quite loudly, in Salazar’s opinion.

When Lucius did finally come to pick them up, he had Snape with him again. When Sal opened his eyes and saw the less than pleased look on Snape’s face, he smirked.

“Ready?” Lucius asked when he saw the four of them lounging—sleeping—in the common room.

The girls jumped up, smiling, and told him that they were. Sal glared at them, but got up nonetheless. He had to _drag_ Godric up from his spot. Even with all of the complaining the blond haired boy was doing, no one else seemed to care.

The two teachers walked them out of the castle to the apparation point. From there, Lucius took out a portkey and had everyone grab hold. Salazar sneered at the innocent little miniature cauldron. Didn’t matter what life he was in, he _despised_ portkeys. And really any other way of wizarding travel besides apparation and brooms.

When they landed—Salazar only remained on his feet because Godric knew of his inability to land with these damnable things—Mr. Malfoy led them to Madam Malkin’s. The girls ran ahead when they heard where they were going, with Godric not too far behind. Figures that he would be excited now that he was a awake, damn diva. Salazar, along with Snape, slowed down. Seemed the Potions Master didn’t want to go into that shop any more than he did, and he wasn’t even getting anything. Supposedly.

**“Massster, why are your mate and other friendsss getting ssso far ahead of you?”** Seraphina asked, moving her head to watch what was in front of her, but still seem like the necklace that everyone else had not even noticed.

**“Because they are idiotsss. Vain idiotsss. I will never understand their fassscination with clothesss and fabricated beauty like that.”**

The snake laughed at him, causing him to scowl. When he finally got to the door, he hesitated, considering running away and going to the Apothecary, probably with Snape following him, but the choice was taken out of his hand when Godric opened the door and dragged him inside. Severus sighed as he followed.

The girls and the Malfoys were already getting engrossed with picking out colors and material and whatever the hell else. Godric kept his hold on Salazar’s hand, as if he were afraid he would disappear, which Salazar was currently mourning his inability to do. So it was not an illogical assessment.

Sal just went along with what they were doing, letting the seamstress take his measurements and letting Godric figure out what his new wardrobe would look like. He figured it was just easier. At least the man knew what he would and wouldn’t wear and what would look good or not.

In the end, he ended up with several robes, usually green or black, with different cuts, plus pants, a few of which were leather, and shirts of varying dark colors. The others ended up with similar clothes, but, unlike him, they were gushing over them while Sal just put his shrunken wardrobe in his pocket and walked out the door. Severus gratefully followed him.

Godric quickly came out and dragged him to the cobbler, where he got several pairs of boots. While the others were getting their shoes, he and Severus slipped out and, finally, went to the Apothecary. It was obvious that they would be there, but at least they would get a break from the others for a while.

“Potter, why did you lead us in here when you abysmal in my class?” Snape asked, even as he started examining the ingredients.

Sal rolled his eyes. Even after showing him what a Potions Master and Slytherin he was, Snape still hated him for no good reason. “Because I figured it would be a good place to go, even if it is a bit obvious for both of us.”

Severus raised an eyebrow. “How would this be obvious for you?”

Salazar ignored him, choosing to snoop around at the ingredients. He wasn’t going to bother explaining something that the older potions master wasn’t going to understand. Waste of breath, really, even if he was allowed to tell the man the truth, he wouldn’t believe him.

It wasn’t too long before the others found them, none of them looking very surprised.

“Of course you two came in here,” Godric muttered while grabbing onto Salazar and dragging him out of the store, managing to push past Sal’s defenses and protests with the ease of someone who knew him inside and out.

Luckily for the two potions fanatics, they were finished in Diagon Alley soon after. They had made a quick stop at Flourish and Blotts to get some books since Salazar and Rowena wanted to research what had been happening in the last thousand years, but that wasn’t exactly painful for him, so he was fine with it.

When they got back to the room in Hogwarts, they took all of their things into their rooms. Salazar took Seraphina off his shoulders and laid her on the bed while he put everything where he wanted it.

“Sal! What’s taking you so long?” Godric called. Salazar smirked at the whining voice. He looked around once more before turning and walking back into the living room where the other three were. Lucius and Snape were nowhere to be seen, so he assumed that they had left.

He walked over to the couch Godric was sitting on, sitting with his legs draped over him. “Hello, friends of mine. To what do I owe this honor?”

Rena shook her head. “Salazar! Be serious—“

“How can I be as such when I know not what this meeting is about? For all you know, I am being serious.”

Helga giggled, Godric laughed, Rowena sighed.

“We need to plan what we’re going to do. We can’t just wing this one and see where it goes. This is a delicate situation. We got lucky that Mr. Malfoy didn’t care that his son got called for Gryffindor. Everyone else, and with the real reason for why we got called to be in this position, will be harder to guess. It could be detrimental if they react wrong.”

“We just have to move carefully and reveal ourselves at the right time. Surely everything will work out,” Helga said.

Godric wrinkled his nose. “I don’t know. We need to know exactly what to do. Move carefully, yes, but we are going to all need to be Salazar and not draw attention to ourselves before we are ready.”

Sal snickered. “I’m not sure you could manage to do that, Ricky. May have been raised as a Slytherin in this life, but I doubt you will be able to maintain it nearly as well, now.”

In the next moment, he found fingers jabbing hard into his side. He jerked away, falling off the couch and scrabbling away from Godric to try and avoid the tickling he likely would’ve been subjected to. He could hear Helga laughing while Rowena just sighed.

He grinned at Ricky from behind one of the girl’s chairs. His lover just glared at him, but he could see the twitch of his lips that told him the other was amused.

“Can we behave for five seconds?” Rowena asked.

Salazar got up, moving into a different chair, and motioned for the woman to go on and announce what her plan was. The seriousness lasted only for the requested five seconds, or minutes as she asked for next, before the next ‘interruption’ took place.

Vaguely, he wondered why he was always blamed for them. It was Godric who initiated them! And the one time where Helga did. And he could swear that Rowena herself started one …

It took a while, but Rowena finally got her proposal out, and they went from there. Somewhat. 


	8. The War Begins

“SALAZAR!”

The green-eyed, reincarnated founder glanced up, a smirk playing on his lips. It was Monday morning, and they were expected to join the rest of the school once again. Salazar and Godric had actually slept in their own rooms last night. Which gave him the _perfect_ opening.

He grabbed his school bag and dashed out the door, absently making sure that Seraphina was around his neck. Just as he got out of their rooms and into the hallway, he heard Godric’s door slam open and the screams for him to come back.

He cackled as he made his way to the Great Hall, slowing down once he came to the more populated corridors. He had almost gotten into the Hall when someone called his name. Turning, he saw Ron and Hermione coming towards him.

Sighing, he crossed his arms and waited for them to catch up. Might as well get this over with now.

“Potter! How dare you pretend to be that slimy, evil snake?!” Ron exclaimed, his face red.

Sal raised a brow. “What are you talking about, Weasley? I was picked for this spot, it isn’t my fault.”

“You wouldn’t have been picked if you hadn’t betrayed us and signed up for it!”

He groaned. “Does no one in this stupid house get what a joke is? It was a bet, I lost, and I had to sign up to be Salazar Slytherin. I got picked for it, and now there is nothing I can do.”

“Surely we can find something,” Hermione said, trying to sound sympathetic and helpful. Little did she knew that she just made him want to curse her for simply assuming that he even needed help, much less that he didn’t want to play the part of _himself_.

Salazar rolled his eyes and turned around, walking into the Hall.

“HEY! We weren’t done talking to you!” Ron called, but he ignored him.

He paused for a moment in the threshold, before walking to the front of the Hall. He stopped in front of the tables, glancing between Gryffindor and Slytherin. But after a moment, he walked over to the green and silver table. The Slytherins only glanced up at him, giving him small smiles, before going back to their breakfast.

He sat at the end of the table, closest to the teacher’s table, and started to eat breakfast, ignoring the glares boring into him from the Gryffindor table. However, after a few minutes, the noise suddenly died down. He looked up, an innocent expression plastered on his face as he looked up to see Godric stalking towards him.

Giggles started to pop up as he walked past.

The Gryffindor Founder was very colorful, both in the language he was using and … everything else. The formerly blond man who was stalking towards him was covered in very bright colors. His hair was pink. His robes were rainbow. His skin was bright neon green.

And after a minute, the colors would all change to a different bright, obnoxious color.

Salazar blinked. “What happened to you?”

Godric stopped across the table from him, planting his hands on the wooden top and leaned down, trying to look menacing, but the colors saw to it that he looked anything but. “You know exactly what happened.” Even though he was talking softly, his voice seemed to ring across the entire room as the only other sounds was an occasional giggle.

Sal smiled serenely, as if he could do absolutely no wrong. “Really, Dray. You need to be more specific than that. I could be thinking of something entirely different than what you think you obviously mean.”

“You, Sa—Harry Potter, were the one to prank me like this,” he growled, leaning closer. “And I will seek revenge for it, mark my words.”

He smirked. “Consider them marked.”

“Boys!” Rowena’s voice shattered the tense atmosphere that had surrounded the hall, and everyone turned to look at her. She was standing by the Ravenclaw table, staring at them dreamily, but the two male founders could see the stern yet playful expression in her eyes. “Breakfast is not the time to declare war.”

“I thought it was the perfect time,” the two boys said in unison.

“And, technically, it was before breakfast,” Salazar added.

Before Rena had a chance to reply, Dumbledore came up to them. He had a disapproving expression on his face as he drew nearer. Godric straightened up as he turned towards him. Salazar stayed where he was, putting a sausage in his mouth.

“Boys, what is the meaning of this?”

“Meaning of what, headmaster?” they asked.

Dumbledore seemed to pause as they spoke together once again, but he forged ahead. “Why are you covered in those colors, Mr. Malfoy? And why are you sitting here, Harry? You are a Gryffindor, not a Slytherin.”

Salazar scowled, not bothering to hide it. The Headmaster had to go. And soon. Or he was going to go on a murderous rampage worthy of the reputation he had gathered over the years since his death. “Perhaps not, but I was chosen to represent Slytherin House as the Founder, so I have the right to sit here as there isn’t a special place for us to sit.”

Albus frowned. The Hall was still silent, so he couldn’t very well tell him off. That would make him look bad. He sighed. “Very well, Harry. But I would like you to come to my office later. We have much to discuss.”

He finally walked away, but Salazar was scowling.

He turned to look back at Godric, who was frowning, concerned, at him. He schooled his features back into an uncaring one and popped another sausage into his mouth. “You might wanna change those colors, Dray. They really aren’t you.”

-S-

Godric hadn’t been able to change the colors, and told him as much. Several times. Per hour. Apparently, that was why he had left the rooms without changing back, to try and get him to undo it. Salazar had only smiled at him, then left the hall to go to class.

The colors had flashed throughout the day, all the way through dinner and up until the four of them retired in their chambers. No one could stop giggling at the sight of one of the prestigious Malfoys that colorful.

Even Draco’s own father didn’t take pity on him. He just smirked at him.

No one tried to get it off for him.

Not that they would’ve been able to. Salazar had done it in parseltongue, after all.

Godric was so relieved that it was over when they got back to their rooms that, once he had taken it off, he had hugged his outer robes. Not only was he the colors he was supposed to be, but he wouldn’t have to endure the giggles aimed at him anymore.

The other three only laughed at him. However, the playful mood was ruined when the door to their rooms swung open to reveal the corrupt Headmaster. Dumbledore walked in, smiling benignly at them.

“Hello, children. I hope that we are all getting along? It wouldn’t do for the Founders of Hogwarts to constantly squabble with each other.”

The four Founders stared at him. Finally, Helga smiled tentatively at him. “No, Headmaster, we aren’t fighting.”

“Good, good! Harry, my boy, I was wondering why you didn’t come to my office earlier?”

Sal blinked lazily, lounging on the couch with his head in Godric’s lap. “You said to go there ‘later’. I was just about to go, as it is ‘later’.”

Dumbledore frowned for a moment before smiling again. “Very well, let’s go, my boy!”

-S-

Salazar sneered at the hideous chair before he sat in it. Fawkes had settled onto his shoulder as soon as he’d walked into the room. As usual, the old goat offered him a disgusting candy, also known as lemon drops, but he declined.

“My boy, I’m worried about you.”

Sal raised a brow but said nothing else.

“You are spending a lot of time around the Malfoy boy. I hope that you are careful. He could be luring you away from your friends and take you to Voldemort. His father is a Death Eater, after all.”

His eyes narrowed slightly. Dumbledore had always taken an odd interest in everything he did. And it took his memories coming back to realize just how bad it really was. He wasn’t the only student in this school! Did they ever meet with their headmaster? Probably not.

“A Death Eater that you let teach at a school filled with children.” Salazar snorted. “Yeah, that was smart. And who said he was pulling me away from my friends? Granger and Weasley? Draco, Luna, and Susan are my friends.”

“Now, Harry—“

“No! There is nothing you can do to change my mind. I pick my own friends. I was obviously a fool for five years, but not anymore. I am friends with the ones I want to be friends with, who are my true friends. And, unlike you, I don’t care that I was picked to be Salazar. I love it! No matter what you do, Hogwarts knows what’s best.”

“Harry—“

“Good bye, professor. You will get what is coming to you.”


	9. The First Task

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for taking so long to get this out, hopefully the next one won't take so long.

Salazar grumbled as his consciousness slowly came out of sleep. There was a noise in his ear, and it wouldn’t go away! His brow furrowed and he buried his face into his pillow. The noise stopped. He sighed, sinking back into blissful sleep.

Until it started. Again!

Sal grumbled, opening his eyes and pulling back from the body lying next to him slightly, but as he did, arms tightened around his waist. He stopped, brow furrowing as he looked up, opening his mouth to tell Godric to let him go, but look on his lover’s face stopped him.

There were tears streaming down his cheeks, even though the man was obviously still asleep. His face was scrunched up in a grimace, as if he was trying to hold back the tears that were already falling. Now that he was awake enough to notice, his body was shaking.

Lifting on of his arms, Salazar carefully laid his hand on Godric’s cheek, wiping away the tears. “Godric, wake up. It’s alright, nothing is wrong.” After a bit of light shaking and maybe a slap or two, the other man finally woke up with a start.

His silver eyes were wide and darted around before settling on Salazar’s face. They stared for a moment before his face crumbled again and he buried it in Sal’s neck, arms tightening almost constricting around him.

He lifted his own arms, petting at his blond hair. “Shh, Godric. It’s okay, nothing’s wrong.” This continued for several minutes before Godric started to calm down, but even though the tears stopped, Salazar could feel his body still shaking.

“… It’s not,” Godric mumbled into Salazar’s neck.

“What?” Sal asked softly, keeping up his petting.

“Alright. It’s not alright. … You died, Sal. You were dead. You left me.”

Salazar stilled, but he soon relaxed again, trying not to show how his words affected him. It was something that had antagonized him in the month between regaining his memories as Salazar Slytherin and the start of school. He had died. Not only that, but at a young age. He couldn’t imagine how his friends had felt. How Godric had felt.

He knew that it had to have been hard on all of them. He didn’t know what he would’ve done if it had been Godric who died. He probably would’ve felt dead inside if he’d had to deal with that. Was that how Godric had felt? Dead inside but still having to live on the outside? For who know how many more years?

His hand threaded through his lover’s blond hair, trying to soothe both of them. Had his death caused that much trouble and turmoil within the one he loved the most? It probably didn’t help that soon after, rumors got out and people started to doubt him, calling him evil. Godric probably couldn’t have taken that very easily.

And it was his fault that he had felt that way. It wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t gone out into the muggle world that day. If he hadn’t done that and had simply stayed in the castle after the girls had separated him from Godric after their sparring battle in the middle of the hall, he would’ve lived much longer at the castle with his lover and friends.

If only …

“Sal,” Godric said, pulling back just enough to look into his lover’s face. “It’s not your fault, so don’t blame yourself. You didn’t know what would happen when you left. Don’t blame yourself for it.”

Salazar stared at him. How could he say that? Surely he knows that how he lived after his death was entirely _Salazar’s_ fault. It wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t been so stupid!

“Sal! No matter what you think or believe, believe this: _it was not your fault_. Never blame yourself for something you had no control over. I know that you didn’t mean to leave me, so quit blaming yourself for it!”

He nodded, curling his arms around the other man’s neck. He felt Godric bury his face in his hair while he buried his own in his neck. He wasn’t sure how late it was, but they laid there for the rest of the night.

Rowena was surprised when they came out of Salazar’s room just as she was walking into the common room.

-S-

Halloween was an exciting day. It was even more exciting for the students since they only had to go to morning classes. They had eaten lunch and were now trooping out to the Quidditch pitch for the first Founders task.

Salazar scowled. He was standing next to Godric, staring suspiciously at the small forest that had been set up in the middle of the pitch. He had a _bad_ feeling about this …

Their heads of house, as well as Lucius Malfoy and Dumbledore, were standing behind them.

Once all of the students were seated in the stands, Dumbledore stepped up and cast _sonorus._ “Welcome, students, to the first task our founders are to preform!” he paused for the cheers to subside. “Yes, yes. About time, yes. Now! I’m sure we are all wondering what they are going to be doing, yes?”

More cheers.

Sal rolled his eyes. “Hurry up, old man,” he muttered to himself. Godric elbowed him.

“Very well! Today, we are going to find out why our school motto is: _Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus._ Which means: Never tickle a sleeping dragon!”

“Fuck!” Salazar exclaimed, his dread climbing. Godric let out a booming laugh, and he could hear the girls giggling. He turned to glare at Ric, but he only grinned sheepishly at him.

“Potter!” Snape snapped.

“Inside the forest is a dragon. Our founders are to find it and show us the meaning of our motto!” Dumbledore gestured at them to get started.

“He’s trying to kill me,” Salazar mumbled, then turned back to scowl at his lover. “ _You_ are trying to kill me.”

“Go on, boys. If I remember correctly, it was you two that did this,” Rowena said, smiling serenely at Sal. Helga giggled and waved.

“Are all of you wanted to see me dead again?”

“Come on, Sally! I’ll protect you.” Godric grabbed his hand and started to drag him towards the forest.

“I’m not afraid to set Seraphina on you,” he threatened.

The other ignored him as he pulled him deeper into the magical forest. Salazar was not looking forward to this, even if it was fake. He remembered this very clearly when it had happened last time!

He had very nearly wanted to kill his lover.

He grumbled the entire trek through the forest, cursing Godric, the girls, Dumbledore, and the fucking dragon that he knew was deep in the forest, just waiting to take a snap at him. What was with these people and their dragons?! Couldn’t it be something sensible, like a basilisk or something?

“Deep breaths, Sally,” Godric said, seemingly trying to be encouraging, but was failing entirely in Salazar’s opinion. “It will be just like last time, I promise!”

“If it _is_ just like last time, Godric, I swear I will throw you straight into its maw and run the other way without remorse or even looking back!” Sal snapped angrily.

Ric, wisely or now, stayed silent.

Luckily—or not, depending on how you felt, Sal himself couldn’t decide which—they heard the deep breaths of a slumbering dragon reverberate from somewhere just beyond the trees in front of them. And, within a few steps, they could see the lizard. It was a large Hungarian Horntail dragon. It looked almost exactly like the one Harry had to fight back in forth year.

The Gryffindor Founder grinned, bravely stepping closer, ignoring Salazar’s furiously whispered warnings. This was exactly as it went the first time. Did he never learn?!

Sal pulled out his wand, backing away to hide behind a tree, but still able to watch his moronic lover get himself killed. He himself wasn’t going to get involved in this one. He rather wished he could’ve been able to stay back at the entrance to the forest with the girls.

No chance of getting killed there.

Godric didn’t seem to care, though at least he was quiet as he approached the sleeping dragon. Along the way, he had picked up a large stick and was holding it in front of him like a sword, as if it would protect him from the oncoming torrent of fire. Salazar couldn’t help but roll his eyes. So much for having lived a life as a Slytherin.

When he was close enough, the Gryffindor Founder slowly reached out and poked the dragon with the stick. Sal resisted the urge to facepalm. Who in the holy fuck poked something dangerous with a fucking stick?!

Godric Gryffindor apparently.

Luckily, the dragon didn’t so much as twitch. After a moment of tense waiting, Ric tossed the stick aside and stepped closer. Salazar _really_ wanted to scream at him to _get back_ , but that would likely only make it worse. Besides, that was what had made the dragon go berserk last time.

Sal’s mentally deprived lover made his way over to the dragon’s flank. He curled his fingers and started to tickle the dragon right under the joint where wing met shoulder. After a moment, the dragon shifted. Its leg thumped a few times, like a dog’s would when you hit just the right sweet spot. Salazar’s mouth almost dropped at the domestic gesture, but then the dragon’s amber eyes opened and focused on where Godric stood, petting it.

For a moment, all was silent.

Then, a mighty roar left its great maw. Godric stumbled back as its wings swiped down, trying to catch him. Salazar cursed, running forward to grab his lover’s arm and haul him back, just as a column of fire left the dragon’s belly.

Sal heard cursing coming from the other’s mouth, but didn’t look back. Instead, he just kept running back toward the edge of the forest. Behind them, the dragon roared again and he could hear the pounding of wings as it took off.

“We have to go after it!”

“Why the fuck would you _want_ to do that?! It’s a _dragon_ , Godric! And it just took off! Let it be.”

“Well, it’s easier than dealing with a basilisk! And we can use our brooms, like you did back in fourth--!”

What Godric had been about to say was cut off by the dragon landing only ten feet from them, crushing the trees that had been in its way. They both froze, letting out screams, as the dragon roared once more and stretched its neck out towards them, snapping its teeth.

Instinctively, Salazar took out his wand and cast up a shield, preventing it from getting them. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Godric pull out his own and water suddenly appeared out of nowhere and poured all over the dragon, making sure to go into its mouth.

It roared again, this time in frustration, and spread its wings and took off. This time, they both could see as it flew across the sky, away from Hogwarts, ignoring all of the screams of the other people around the stadium.

Sal snorted. “I hope the dragon tamers didn’t want to keep that one.”

Godric grinned. “Well, that was fun!”

Salazar turned a glare on him. “I’m going to kill you. You know I hate dragons!”

-S-

The girls had only laughed at him when he stomped angrily out of the forest. Godric had been much too happy on the trek back, chattering on about this and that, usually coming back to the dragon and how majestic it had been.

Salazar may or may not have cursed the prat with overly large googly eyes.

“But, honestly, Sally! How can you hate such majestic creatures! They are proud and oh, so, beautiful!”

The Slytherin Founder growled. “If you love them so much, why don’t you just go lay with one!”

With that, he stalked away, ignoring the Headmaster and the other professors as they tried to stop him. He tuned out all of the noise and just focused on finding the fastest path to his Chamber. He felt no reason to stay any longer. The task was finished and there were not classes afterwards, so why should he stay?


End file.
